Well-known For Fifteen Individuals: The Songs Of Momus 1982-1995 by John Robinson.

Launch Date: Out Now

Printed by: Zero Books

An affect on each Jarvis Cocker and Brett Anderson, the skewed serenades of Momus are one in every of different music’s best-kept secrets and techniques, possibly till now that’s.

One of many nice take a look at strengths of any musical enigma is their sense of transparency, a capability to not be pinned down. So floats Momus, a songwriter who for over forty years has retained each his mystique and sense of attract for these listeners on the margins of popular culture. Trying like an East European murderer, his music has at all times been a wierd combination of the sinister and the salacious. Listening to it ( particularly late at evening ) is sort of a voyeuristic, disturbing expertise.

In contrast to different cult songwriters (Lawrence from Felt and Dan Treacy spring to thoughts) there’s not the sense that Momus’ profession has been one in every of misplaced alternative however that he has discovered his rightful place within the blurred traces of the avant-garde relatively than the secure haven of economic success. It’s as much as others to make sense of him or at the very least supply lucid clues to his songwriting. In ‘Well-known For Fifteen Individuals’, creator John Robinson takes up the mantle with a eager eye for the surreal and an undoubted love for his topic. The idea of the e-book is concise. By masking the profession of Momus from 1982 to 1995 (an extra e-book is deliberate) Robinson goals to peel again the layers of the parable to disclose the bones of the person. That is no easy feat when you think about the shape-shifting nature of Momus, an artist who in his time has been an alternate stalwart, rabid experimentalist and even a Japanese pop star amongst different issues.

Partly autobiographical, ‘Well-known For Fifteen Individuals’ fills within the blanks for these not tuned into the songwriters profession however Robinson understands that it’s within the DNA and outline of his songs, particularly his internet of epigrams the place Momus is at his strongest place. Lyrically, he might be the most effective the UK has ever produced. Each ribald and poetic, his couplets are ballads to sinister loves, spiritual deities and naked arses. ‘Bartering with flesh for a little bit ache/ Scenes like this give sadomasochism a foul title,’ he sings on ‘Fortunate Like St Sebastian’, while there’s related steam in ‘I Ate A Lady Proper Up,’ its heaviest traces nearly a name to arms for Momus followers all over the place. ‘Everyone wants on occasion/ To recollect the truth that they’re an animal.’

Relying in your tolerance for the seedier points of life behind closed curtains ( and certainly these intentionally left open ) must be a heavy clue as as to whether to put money into the again catalogue of Momus. As Robinson factors out within the e-book, there have been accusations of him being, effectively, a little bit of a perve. Actually, an anecdote that Brett Anderson tells of Momus being at a home occasion with a video digital camera while the Suede singer was there with Justine Frischmann might increase a couple of eyebrows. On later viewing it was found he had principally made a two-hour video of the Elastica singers arse. Such tales apart, while it’s true {that a} character in a typical Momus tune tends to make use of their sexuality like pub darts, you may’t purpose the Bukowski misogyny arrow on the man. Everyone seems to be form of wicked in Momus world. Man. Girl. Marsupial. All rubbing their clankers collectively like tinder sticks. That’s a part of the attraction and a part of the horror. A guignol masks that glints between true sin and depraved horror relying on how your morality meter stacks up.

Like all good biographers, Robinson realises it’s not his place to dilute or choose however at sure factors possibly he ought to. Momus’ controversial relationship along with his future spouse Shazna Nessa, their preliminary assembly being performed when she was simply fourteen years previous makes an uneasy learn, as does her ex-fiancé and his brothers turning as much as the Creation document places of work with machetes to precise a violent revenge on the songwriter.

There may be additionally a extremely questionable quote within the e-book about Momus’ angle to free speech in relation to writing about rape that actually jars arduous. It might be fascinating to see in a extra typical biography how Robinson would write up these issues extra expansively. When it comes to Momus’ again catalogue, he can’t be faulted. He writes intelligently concerning the numerous tracks all through, hanging a effective steadiness between real evaluation and mordant humour. He might effectively have provide you with one of the best opening description of a tune ever in ‘A Monkey For Sallie’ too, like Hans Christian Andersen on acid with the wonderful ‘The Monkey abuses Sallie and the narrator equally and is sort of depraved..’. It’s almost a case of the apprentice out gunning his grasp.

Ultimately, it’s this spirit which makes ‘Well-known For Fifteen Individuals’ so profitable. Being a fan is usually a troublesome factor as a author, particularly when confronted with a PR Hiroshima bomb like Momus. Robinson nonetheless has succeeded on two massive factors. First studying the e-book there’s an overriding urge to take a deep dive into Momus’ again catalogue and secondly, he has gone a protracted option to redressing the steadiness of an artist whose controversy has at all times barely extinguished the real firmament of his expertise.

Phrases by Craig Campbell, you may learn extra e-book critiques at his creator profile. He additionally tweets right here